Saturday, January 29, 2011

Recently the Yarn Harlot blogged about meeting a knitter who actually kept a knitting journal, she said it was like meeting a mythical creature, a knitters version of a unicorn. To quote her "some of us even buy knitting journals, but none of us really write in them more than once or twice before the habit falls off". I'm one of 'those' knitters, those mythical knitters who keep projec notes, I keep a knitting journal, I have since 2006, except I prefer to call mine my knitting workbook. 2006 was well before Ravelry, and I have to say the project notes on Ravelry are an excellent way of keeping knitting notes, and honestly I think if Ravely had been around in 2006 I might not have have started a paper journal that was quite so detailed, but now I'm in the habit of doing so I will keep recording things on paper as well as on line.
I keep records of the yarn, the pattern, and gauge in the journal, I write down when I start, and when I finish, and I make drawings or plans on which I work out the increases or decreases or sizes. I paste in a ball band, and make notes of what didn't work and what was frogged, and what my new plans were for completion. I also try and include photos of the projects, both in progress and finished. The largest journal here, showing the mittens, started in March 2006 and was in a spiral bound art 'visual diary', sized A4. Over the years I have tried a few different formats. I found I liked spiral bound - as it lets me add in photos and other things without the pages bulging at the binding. I found I disliked working in a small book, the red one was really too small, and project notes ended up split over too many different pages. Thinking about it .. a paper journal lets me keep drawings and scribbles and trial calculations in a way that a database system like Ravelry can't. Ravelry is more of a record of what worked .. my workbook is more a of a record of how I worked it out.
My current workbook is a spiral bound one with graph paper. I'm liking it, slightly smaller than A4 ... but big enough. This is a hand drawn chart of the edging I used on the linen basket liner, together with notes on decisions I made and why, for example I used garter stitch not my favorite slipped stitched edge so it would stretch enough when blocked. The fact I can hand draw a chart or schematic is one of the attractions of a paper workbook, I can do that sitting on the couch with my knitting beside me and there is no need to head off to a computer and make it look pretty and perfect and find a knitting font and check there is paper in the printer. The cubs raid the printer tray for drawing paper .... and whist I encourage their artistic endeavors that leaving the printer with no paper is one of those little things that can get to be annoying.
This is the current 'I want you off the needles project'. I wonder if other knitters have that need, occasionally to clear the project basket of wip's before starting new projects. The lace I chose is working out nicely ... although in hindsight I see that the corners could have been filled with a smaller lace motif. Next time, I also worked it in stocking stitch, instead of garter stitch. That was just a simple mindless mistake knitting every round instead of purling every second, but there seems to be enough texture in the lace to work well with the garter stitch center section. There are three or four more rounds to workbook, work of this lace repeat, then I need to decide if there is a narrow band of eyelets worked in blue before I switch to a darker grey for the cast off lace boarder, and I have to find a lace that I want to use ... so there will be more fun browsing thru lace books again.
I have not made use of the linen basket liner yet ... as the cubs are home with me until next Wednesday when school (and work) starts they have gobbled up much of my baking before it even leaves the cooling rack. For now it is resting amongst all the boxes of 'fancy' cutlery that we inherited from older family(and almost never use). My plan is that the linen basket liner is more used than the cutlery.

so ...... I'll leave you with four years of knitting workbooks ....keeping a workbook is not hard, keep one in your 'knitting place'. Choose a nice book that you want to write in, some thing with a nice cover and nice paper. Pull it out when you are knitting and use it to tick off repeats, note down needle sizes, make comments about changes that you think might work. Copy graphs and paste them into it .. so you don't need to take the pattern with you. Leave spaces for photos, and every few months sit down at the computer and print out a page or two of photos and then take a few minutes to stick them next to the project notes.

Then when you meet knitting idols like the Yarn harlot .. you can ask her to sign your knitting workbook ... and impress her!

Monday, January 24, 2011

I almost can't believe that I made it. Especially when the 'something' is a project that wasn't particularly planed in full before it began. Today there are finished blocking photos of one of those kinds of projects, the Linen basket liner, and I introduce a new project - colour-work. Every time I start knitting colour-work .. I wonder why I don't knit more of it, and this time I'm knitting in Shetland yarn, and I love it, for lots of reason.
First up, the finished Linen Basket liner project, well I'm calling it that but really it will be used to line bowls, the deep pottery kind that I toss warm bread buns and muffins into when serving. Or toast, or croissants, or bagels, or fruit toast ... or, well you know those sorts of bakery things that are best served fresh and warm. I'm so pleased with this, there are a few things that I would change if I was to knit it again, I think the outer pattern of horse-lace really needs another repeat around as it was a bit stretched when I blocked it. Once I started working the edging I was hooked, seeing each repeat cast of another section of the work was addictive. I neglected my other knitting projects (and some household chores) to sit and knit. I took it and its chart to the local school playground while supervising play, I chose meals that were almost instant and had almost no clean up, I made choices that maximized my knitting time - just to have it done. The edging I chose was the Traditional Scalloped Edging from page 54 of Sharon Millers Heirloom Knitting. The middle band was 3 repeats of Horse shoe from page 67 of the same book, but I increased 2 stitches each 'horse-shoe' each repeat to allow for the increasing diameter. That worked really well.
Then I 'threw' it in the washing machine, on a fairly heavy duty wash, this is linen and I know from linen tea towels that linen matures with a few washes. It softens and relaxes and becomes unbelievably nice to handle ... so I made up for the relaxed attitude to housework by tossing in all the dirty washing that needed doing. Then I pined it out, I used a tape measure pined at the center to make sure I was pinning all the points equidistant. I pinned the quarters first, then the midpoints between those, then the midpoints between that, and so on. I left it to dry overnight. I kept finding excuses to walk past the blocking board and admire it, this project impresses me, I love that I have knit it, love I have finished it, love I can use it, and love that I 'made-it-up' rather than worked to a predetermined pattern. At the same time I almost can't believe that the scrunched up bunch of loops on my needles has turned into this.
This morning it was pretty much dry, but I've popped it out in the sun .... just to set and finalize the blocking. Latter I'll carefully remove the pins and polish it with a hot iron. I know linen fabric likes a hot iron polish, so assume that linen knitting would like the same.
With that all done, and blocking I returned to one of my 'other' lace projects, the replacement blanket. This is for me, I suspect it will become a kind of hap-shawl, something to wrap around me when I'm at home and cold. I had frogged the first carefully planned and charted lace and selected another. This lace feels like a better match for the yarn and colour and gauge. I am finding most of my 'lace' in Sharon Miller's book at the moment, this time Center Design of Bead Lozenges from page 55.
And the newest project, is a colourwork tam. I'm working with my little stash of shetland 2 ply that I brought back, and loving it. In New Zealand - home of sheep, it is surprisingly difficult to source yarn for colourwork. In retail shops there is usually a selection including a blue, a red, an orange, a green, a yellow, a pink, a cream, and a white, perhaps sometimes a black or a purple - but pretty much the standard colours that are in 12 set of colouring pencils. To top that off, the most stocked weigh of yarn in shops here is DK, or something between Aran and Worsted - hardly a colourwork wonderland. You can buy a skein at a time .. from Indie dyers, but have to have forsight to collect over time colours that will work together. I lusted after the huge range of shades that was available in ranges specifically designed for colourwork. Then when I got to choose - it was almost too much .. but I'm happy with the colours I brought back and have made a start on a Tam. I-cord followed by corrugated rib with the knits shading from purple to pale grey ... I like it so far. This is part of the Knitters Study Group project, and in 5 weeks I need to have this at the stage of decreasing for the crown ... somehow I don't think that will be a problem.

There are a couple of other abandoned projects, true UFO's lurking in my knit basket. Both of which are going to be frogged this week. The latest Piecework arrived, and I like the Snowflake scarf in that much more than the one I'm knitting so that seems to be a sign to stop knitting something I don't enjoy and start again with something more tempting.

So .. I guess that I should go a bake something to fill my linen basket liner with?
Take care
Stella

Thursday, January 20, 2011

knitting progress. Finished objects and long abandoned objects are getting some time with me. I'm still on leave, for another week and a half, but like a perfect holiday its been lazy and relaxing. I did have a huge list of things that I wanted to get done, but some where along the line I realized that working thru the list changed nothing .. and perhaps the best thing for me and now and the family was just to 'be'. Of course I'm slow, it took until now to work that out, with only a week of leave left. Amongst it all there has been knitting, and catching up with friends, and baking and making, and gardening, and relaxing. This blog is intended as a thinking space for my knitting, and along with that goes a little bit of show and tell. I've been reading and thinking about some wonderful blog entries that celebrate the new opportunities a new calender year brings to focus on what is important. Here where the Yarn Harlot reminds knitters and others about the word 'enough', she explains it much more elegantly and completely than I can, and here, where Jocelyn shifts the focus slightly from resolutions to watchwords or guide-words for life. Both these ideas I like ... so much so I have adopted the ideas as my own, keeping words like enough and deliberate, and balance, and enjoyment to the front of my kniting focus and I hope also my life. Last year I took on several projects that were not of my own choosing, which I found tedious to complete. This year I intend to return to the heart of my interest in knitting, and work mostly on things that excite me, that are interesting to knit, and to perhaps not be so distracted.
The secret project is gone, handed off to the next busy bee in the chain, and the eldest cub has new socks. I'm pleased with how these turned out, especially as one of my own socks now has a hole under the heel, just where these are reinforced but a slip stitch.
One of the projects that has been lingering in my knitting basket is a Shetland blanket. I had charted a lace pattern for the blue band, complete with the mitered increases. As I worked the lace pattern I didn't like it, I can't quite explain it, and I know that lace looks best once it is done and blocked and one shouldn't decide before then .. but I just felt the pattern wasn't working for this yarn and colour and band.
So I frogged it, and hauled out the pile of a knitting books with lace edging and flicked through. These books lived in a pile in the living area for a few days while I browsed. When I frogged it youngest knitting cub was shocked, but relaxed once I had them back on the needles, its good for new knitters so see that kind of activity isn't it?
Meanwhile I picked up the stitches and made sure they were all sitting on the needles the right way, and that I had an equal amount of stitches on each side. I worked 2 rounds of plain garter stitch and I'm close to deciding what pattern will be tried next.
There are two other 'lingering' projects in my knit basket, this one is a linen lace basket liner. I'm surprised at how nice the linen is to knit on KnitPicks metal needles. I had imagined that linen would be a tough knit - but perhaps the smooth needles and the fine yarn make this easier. This project began as a class exercise in the Knitters Study group, and was on knitting 'shapes'. I'm building it as I go with no pattern and just guessing about where to place the increases to keep it flat. I'm not sure the eyelet band will block flat .. but live with hope it will and knowledge that it can be frogged if not. Some time in the next few rounds I have to pick a edging to work around it .... so those books are likely to stay in the living area for a few more days while I browse for an edging for this.

Today is Friday, and I have a plan to return to a more 'scheduled' week next week in preparation for 'work' the week after. Normal twice a week blog service will return ..... if my planning goes as planned.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Today's post has two projects which are nearly there, the secret one which I can't provide many details of yet has a deadline which has expired. This is a team effort and two of us are working the first relay .. and the second relay team is standing by ready to do their share, its not a race but it is only fair if I complete my section in time for the next participants to complete theirs. The second project that is nearly there is my first socks of the year, which are pretty much done sans the ribbing at the top of the second one and weaving in the ends. These socks have also turned into a team effort. The third part of this post is nothing to do with knitting, or yarns or spinning, but does have a fibre link .. albeit a thin link.
Secret projects are not really compatable with blogging or with Ravelry. How can one fill a post or project page with all the details of a project when one can't share it yet? Even posting photos can be difficult, Oh its fairly easy to make a photo black and white, and to photograph a teasing little section that will make guessing hard. What is difficult is showing progress without giving away any hints about the size of the project ....but I think I've managed it. This project is colourwork, stranded, and I'm nearly ready to cast off. The working needles are a wee way away from the cast on and start of the tape measure shown here. I should be able to share my bits and the whole project with you all soon.
I can share the first pair of socks of 2011, which are nearly done. I was pleased that I made good notes on the first heel .. so much so that I was able to follow them for the second heel. I wound off a little section of the yarn so I could start the second sock with the same colour yarn section .... and so far the socks are turning into a fairly well matched pair.
This is the project I took up to my Dads to collect the cubs. Smallest cub sat next to me on the couch and dropped fairly clear hints that she wanted work on my knitting. The hints ran along the lines of 'I forgot to bring my knitting', 'I've never knit with needles as small as that', and 'oooo - you are knitting, is there any purl in that round? I can knit you know'. What really convinced me to hand my knitting over was her interest in the self patterning yarn, she couldn't work out how the pattern was made. Eventually I just handed it over, showed her how magic loop worked and kept an eye on her. She did well, the tension is a little looser than mine, she worked the first few rounds of this grey and white colour change, and it was only the next day I spotted the one drooped stitch. She came with me to knit night this week, where she got bored with her knitting and again worked on my sock, and even went home with sock yarn of her own .... how can one deny a beginner knitter new yarn? I won't take her every time, she needs her sleep, and she can't cast on for socks until the hat is nearly done ... I'm mean like that. Start 'em young and keep 'em keen.
And so the end of the post departs from things knitterly and heads off into the vintage fountain pen and pencil section of my life. I now have several (ahem .... nearly two dozen) fountain pens, mechanical and clutch pencils and vintage ball points I have been looking at ways to store them safely and neatly. Some collectors use purpose built storage drawers,, some use cigar boxes which are customized for pen display or storage, some of these customized boxes are very very very nice with built in display sections. If you have a collection that has between 2 and 140 pens .. there are all sorts of ready to use storage boxes out there for you. All of these strike me as being particularly adaptable for knitting needles and tips. However I'm not yet in the market for something as formal as that .. but I was looking for something that was nicer than a shoe box or plastic tray. In Waimate I spotted this little lacquer box in the window of a junk shop. A little hand written tad identified it as 'old sewing box', which sort of identifies it for a fibre craft. I tried the three pens in my hand bag in it, and they fit.

Back home I cleaned the box up using pen cleaning products from Tryphon Enterprises. I thought that vintage lacquer was probably not terribly different to vintage pens. The box easily holds my longest pens and pencils, has three stacking trays and all that fits into a neat matching tray with carry handle. For now the pens rest on a layer of folded kitchen towel .. but I will be fitting black pen trays as soon as they arrive. That will stop pens drifting around if I move the tray.

Please - if any one can give me more into on what this little set of boxes was originally intended for, or if you have memories of simillar boxes - please let me know. I'm curious, about when, and what, and how, and where, and who ... you know all the usual questions.

so .. take care, knit some, the weekend is upon us, relax some,
na Stella

Saturday, January 08, 2011

I'm slightly in awe of the number and quality of the suggestions readers have for a new name for the little beaded ballet wrap ... Bear suggests as there are so many good ones, that I may have to resort to a ballot, he may be right. He often is. If you are like me and takes a while for ideas to ferment .. then you have until the end of January 2011 to leave a suggestion on the original post - I'm not rushing this at all.
I'm still on leave, but yet again the knitting has not been as frequent or as progressive as I would have expected. There is a new sock, inspired by a fellow blogger and knitter, and the cubs have been away since Tuesday (its now Sunday). They went to visit their Granddad for two days, but rang to say they wanted to travel with him to Christchurch to visit my brother, and wouldn't be back until Sunday. My little Brother smashed his ankle mountain biking in the North Island just after New Year .. and had emergency surgery, and airlift to a larger hospital, and plates and screws holding everything inside together and is now home. He will live, and as he has already had both knees rebuilt .. so I suspect this may slow him down but will not stop him. My Dad thought it would be nice to visit him with our cubs. Chris and I will get up to see him, taking the cubs back up with us, in a few weeks. In the meanwhile Bear and I have been busy, we had a few days out and about lunching and shopping ... in the hope of finding old pens ... but none came to light, instead Bear bought me an old-new-to-me present which is fun, and I've been knitting.
So socks, new socks, the first socks of the year. These are boy socks, either for eldest cub or Bear whomever they fit best. There is a tendency among some knitters to dismiss yarn that is 'self-patterning', and yes - once one can knit colour work the idea of knitting a single yarn that will 'magically' form a colour work like pattern seems a little bizarre. The fact that for the pattern to appear as the designer intended you need the exact gauge and stitch count that it was planned for ... which rarely occurs. This is Moda Vera Noir yarn I picked up on sale from Spotlight, a big box craft store, that regularly puts all their yarn on sale to make room for themed occasions, Easter, Valentines, Christmas, Ball season, it seems that the yarn is the first to go when they need an empty isle to display seasonal stock. The good news is that because they don't value knitting and yarn enough to stock it year round ... they also don't have any idea of its inherent or permanent value - so often one can buy sock yarn for $NZ4 a 100g. In any ones books that is a cheap pair of hand knit socks, spun in Turkey, with 25% nylon, and a feel that says 'durable'. What I find interesting is that I'm sort of apologetic amongst other knitters because yes I am knitting with self patterning yarn ... but Bear admired the yarn and said it was rather elegant, and usually I trust his taste. He appears to have good taste.
These socks are toe up, and knit as I always do with self patterning yarn, with a slip stitch to disrupt the pattern and give it a little bit of life. I've worked the slip stitches every 5th stitch on the instep, every second round for 10 rounds, then 10 rounds plain. For the leg I've worked the slip stitches every second round continuously. I think I prefer the leg section .. but will work the other as a match. The heel was inspired by Ricks-toe-up sock, as developed by Jocelyn. I've no idea if I've worked my as she worked hers .... but it seems sucessful. The slip stitch heel flap runs along the end of the sole, followed by a little heel cup extension, then stitches are picked up along the sides of the flap and gusset decreases work them away.
And this is the vintage writing slope Bear bought for me, closed it is corrugated blackened wood. Kind of a bizarre black mini coffin with a small peaked roof. I don't have a key for the lock - but I know a lock smith can make a key to fit very easily and economically, so I get that done that soon. Technically this is an anniversary present ... but I'm allowed to play with it already a few weeks early.
When the first flap is lifted it reveals storage for pens and pen things, and enough room to write a quick note or address an envelope. All the little lids and covers were there, and all the hinges are brass and working, I do need to make a wee tassel for one of the lids .. it has a ring that is crying out for a tassel.
When the second flap is folded down, a larger green felt slope is revealed, with is very comfortable for writing on. Bear pointed out that it looks surprisingly like a typewriter slope ... or the angle of a keyboard with supports.
The green felt sections then lift up to access storage for paper, and other flat things, there are even little secretdrawers. I'm glad we were told about it in the shop .. I've no idea how long it would have taken me to find out about those drawers.
Under the lower section of the slope is another little storage area, with a lovely shaped and sprung brass clip.
With just enough room for envelopes and my Vintage Purls stickies. It seems ok to put something as special as that in something as special as this.
Up in the top section there is room for my un-inked fountain pens. I now have a small but growing collection and have heard that it is best to leave them nib up with the cap on, so this is for BP (Ball Points) and pencils and such. There are four little lidded sections. One pen length size, one I have put two vintage sharpeners in (a cute lead pointer for a 2mm lead holder and a vintage metal Stadleter), and in the next an eraser, because I make mistakes and I know and accept it, and the end section has a wee block of wax. I've learned that one can make an envelope address weather resistant by rubbing wax over it.

Its all rather lovely and for some one who has a real box fetish, who loves containers and boxes and storage stuff .. this is a weird kind of heavenly play thing.
While the cubs have been away Bear and I spring cleaned their room ... completely. Both rooms were emptied out and we swapped the beds over, and cleaned from ceiling to floor, windows and all. We put the furniture back in new arrangements which should give them more play space ... they have both had the same arrangement for 5 years ... and now they play differently and have different stuff. This is half of Smallest Cubs room, the head of her bed used to be where the dolls house is .....
And this is the other end of her room, complete with Curley Bear, Denise the ballet bear, ukulele, and the bed that her brother used to have in his room. It is oak, complete with the original oak frame, and was never shortened during the 'modern' 1950's ... so is still tall and Edwardian. the letter is from her school friend who has spent the past year in Edinburgh.
The older cub has the smallest room, and when we swapped over the beds we decided to try it with the bed along the short wall. This has given him much more usable play-space on the floor ... before he had a narrow corridor between the bed and the window.

Look! we are such good parents, we even set out the Lego on display! Of course I have probably mixed up up the Star Wars lego with the City lego, with the Atalantas and Space Police lego, and the remote controlled Technics lego, and the Bionicle lego. When I was a kid lego was lego - now it is all themed, and if their are any complaints I will remind him that I tidied his room ... next time he can do it.

So its been a busy week, we are both tired and happy. Bear goes back to work tomorrow, and I'll head off to collect the cubs.
Take care
hope the sun shines where you are, and the knitting goes well.
na Stella

Monday, January 03, 2011

Yes a tad late, several days late, even though New Zealand is one of the first to celebrate such events, but better late than never. So another year, which means another year of knitting done, and a year of knitting to look forward to. I counted up my knitted projects last year, and found I had worked twelve pairs of socks, two cardigans for me, two shawls, two pairs of mittens, one wall hanging, one scarf, one baby singlet, one jersey for a cub, one giant blanket, one hotie cover, one pattern for baby booties and ... two secret projects. One is finished, and really deserves an outing, the other is still in progress and can't be revealed yet. All in all a good year knitwise.
To start the new year off - I will detail a project that never quite made the blog - even though it was finished around this time last year, introduce the two finished socks that just squeaked into 2010, and the new sock - because one simply has to have a sock on the needles.
So .. the project that never made it to the blog? Well, now youngest cub has switched from Gymnastics to Ballet I have become a Ballet-mum. One of the tasks of Ballet parents is to supply the ballet clothes, shoes, tights and leotards, plus a classic ballet wrap cardigan. I happy confess to being a Elizabeth Zimmerman convert, seeking to knit without seams rather than knit components that will be seamed together ....but I was unable to locate a pattern for a ballet wrap that was interesting to knit and pretty. I decided to develop my own .. and started with a few sketches, and developed a design that I thought could be knit all in one with no seams.
Then I tried knitting one, in fashion design the test garment is called a toile, and is made from cheaper materials just to test the design idea, the proportions, and fit and construction. So I toiled my idea .. in some fine blue yarn I had around and discovered that my idea would work but I needed to adjust the proportions a little.
Once I had done that I knit it all over again - with modifications, in some lovely mohair based lace yarn, two strands held together with beads all over the yoke.
I was going for subtle, and so selected little light beads that would provide a slight hint of sparkle .. and I wanted some that were comfy to wear. If I was going to knit a cardigan in lace weight yarn on fine needles I wanted it to be worn not discarded because the beads were uncomfortable. I also had a lot of fun using all the little finishing touches that I could think off, like working a mock-icord edge and shaping with short rows, and provisional cast on, and decreases that shape the garment from the center back right out across the shoulder and down to the end of the ties.
I discovered the wrap worked well without sleeves ... so had my ballet-cub model it for me last summer. I loved how the garter stitch fabric provides enough stretch to fit easily.
Then I added sleeves, knit in the round with one strand of lace weight so they are slightly sheer, and I worked a beaded garter stitch cuff to finish them off. I loved it .. and the reason I was keeping it a secret was that I intended to submit the design to Knitty. I had discussions with a few people on line about the design but didn't make any thing public because that would make me ineligible for selection by Knitty. One of the discussions resulted in the suggestion of a name .. Cache Coeur - which means Cross your heart in French. I loved that for all sorts of reasons, and more so because of all the ideas of love that went into making a ballet wrap for my youngest cub that really did cross her heart up in my love. I had three offers to test knit this, one I accepted .. and the pattern was polished so others could make sense of it. Unfortunately when I looked today - there are at last count over 60 patterns that use the name Cache Coeur already on Ravelry - Bother!
I spent a lot of time documenting the pattern, and it was test knit (Thank you J - now you can blog it and ravelry it), I formatted the submission and sent it off and waited ... and waited. But Knitty don't publish many kids patterns, and suggested I send it off to Petite Purls (they also suggested I tell them Knitty thought they would be mad if they didn't accept it). But life got busy and the submission system for Petite Purls was completely different to the one for Knitty .. meaning I had to rework my document, and submit a sketch and swatch and design idea before working on the pattern. There I was with a completed pattern, and photo shoot. Life got busy .. I got distracted, the Ballet Wrap went to ballet class and was a hit .. but I had moved on, and I guess I was hurt that my design was not accepted .. but that is part of putting ones ideas out there - rejection is every bit as possible as acceptance.

Which leaves me here, a year latter, with a pattern, all worked up for sizes age 4 to age 16 years, almost complete (Knitty wanted the images left out of the pattern file so I have to add them in and make it look all pretty), and now I'm looking for a name.

So .. suggestions any one? What is a good name for this wee ballet wrap? Should I add one more with the name Cache Coeur or use something else? Smallest Cubs dance school is run by a Miss Bennett, which has a lovely link to Jane Austin ... should it be linked to that? I'm not a ballet person, I was sent to music and art not dance class - I need help here.
I'm prepared to make it a competition --- say two skeins of Vintage Purls lace yarn (She dyes my all time favorite sock yarn and the lace is just as yummy) in return for the best name? That way you would be all set to knit one yourself. Naming competition closes end of January .. at which time I promise to have the pattern all sorted and uploaded to Ravelry and available. To enter please leave a comment on this post with a name suggestion and some way I can contact you (Ravelry name perhaps?).
I'm the kind of person who works best to deadlines, so I'm giving my self a deadline, and making it public ... which should be enough to motivate me.
Most of this post has been about knitting that was off the needles almost a year ago ... which leaves me needing to post recent knitting activity. Well I finished Bears socks, and he is wearing them now.

The spiral socks are done, Spiral Bound, by Vintage Purls, complete and blocked.
I then found myself with no socks on the needles, so I started a new pair. Details next post I promise.

Take care ... hope 2011 is in every way a better year for all
na Stella

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Me

I knit, there is more, I spin too, make books, and play with ink printing, and I work, and have a family. There are two knitting groups, one spinning group and I love process ...on Ravelry I'm Knitfrogknit. Sometimes I get to teach knitting things. Lately there has been a growing interest in in vintage fountain pens, inks, and old fashioned pencils ... truly I am a geek in these things.

On my book shelf

Fish count : 144 + 13

I'm knitting Knitting Arrows Fish blanket, my version is on show @ Ravelry, here, along with many many others.So I have 144 sewn together and 13 ready to add, making a total of .... 157 small fish.I'm using up the left over yarn sock yarn, and started this in January 2007. It is a slow-food project, aimed at a long term outcome, not a quick weekend knit.